Peter Minuit

Peter Minuit (1580-1638) was Director of New Netherland from 1626 to 1631, succeeding Willem Verhulst and preceding Sebastiaen Jansen Krol. In 1638, he founded the Swedish colony of New Sweden in Delaware.

Biography
Peter Minuit was born in Wesel, Duchy of Cleves, Holy Roman Empire in 1580, a member of a Calvinist Walloon family that had fled from the Spanish Netherlands. He inherited his father's business in 1609, and Minuit established himself as a broker. In 1625, he left Wesel and went to Holland, joining the Dutch West India Company. In 1626, he was appointed Director of New Netherland, and he purchased the island of Manhattan from the Native Americans in exchange for traded goods worth $24. Minuit also purchased Staten Island from the local natives, expanding the Dutch colony. During Minuit's administration, several mills were built, trade grew exponentially, and the population grew to almost 300. In 1631, he was replaced as director after he allowed for landowners to engage in the illegal fur trade, and, in 1636, he made an arrangement with the government of Sweden to establish a Swedish colony in the Americas. He established New Sweden along the Delaware River, but, in 1638, he drowned when his ship, full of goods and colonists, was lost with all hands during a Caribbean hurricane.